USE OF CENTRIFUGAL PARTITION CHROMATOGRAPHY AND PROTEINS IN THE PREPARATIVE SEPARATION OF AMINO-ACID ENANTIOMERS

The growth of analytical methodologies for the separation of enantiomers has been impressive. Attention is now turning to the large scale separation of enantiomers. Often scaling-up sensitive analytical separations is ineffective and inefficient. Centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) may be a viable alternative for the preparative separation of racemic mixtures in some cases. The use of proteins as chiral selectors in CPC is examined. Attention was focused on proteins that previously were used as bonded phases in analytical LC columns. The enzymatic properties of alpha-chymotrypsin allowed it to be used as a bioreactor in conjunction with CPC. When proteins are used as components of the stationary or mobile phase there can be problems with denaturation. However, when used in external incubation processes or as column bioreactors coupled with CPC, effective gram-scale separations can be performed. Tryptophan methyl ester was used as a model compound to evaluate this approach.